So each day I kept the story going, and what you see below is the result of seven days worth of exercises. The words I used were picked at random from The Family Word Finder, published by Reader’s Digest, about 40 years ago. I’ve bolded them in my story so you know which ones I used.
Now the question is, do I leave the story as it is, or do I keep going?
They took a break at mid-day, sitting on a tumble of boulders, drinking from their water bottles.
“I have to admit, Eve, this was a great idea.”
“I knew once I got you out here you’d love it. It’s the best of both worlds, hiking and rock climbing.”
“And the rock climbing is easy enough that even a klutz like me can manage it.” Sara said with a chuckle. She motioned with her water bottle. “What’s that over there?”
Eve turned to look. “Looks like a fissure in the rocks, it might even lead to a cavern,” she said with growing excitement. “Hey, Sara, ever try spelunking?”
“Wow,” Sara said when they crawled through the fissure to the cave. “It looks like a giant lives here.”
The cave was enormous, a fact that wasn’t made clear until Eve turned on her torch. The light didn’t reach the edges, but cut in a wide swath through the dark as they moved around. Sara flicked her torch on as well and they moved in opposite directions, parallel to the entrance, to try and give an estimate of the size.
The cave definitely earned the name cavern. Eve figured her whole house could fit inside, with room for parking.
“Hey, Eve, come check this out,” Sara called.
Eve crossed the immense chamber to her. “What is it?”
Sara held her lantern up. “Look!”
Eve sucked in a breath of astonishment. The wall of the cave was filled with primitive art work. “This is amazing,” she whispered. Unable to resist, she reached out to touch the smooth surface of the wall. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“It’s the find of the century,” Sara said with satisfaction. “And we’ll get the credit for finding it.”
“We need to search this entire cave,” Eve said.
“I agree. I can’t believe no one ever stumbled on this place before,” Sara said.
“I’ve been thinking about that,” Eve said as they made a slow circuit of the chamber. “This trail is kind of off the beat track, away from the main trails. And do you remember the earthquake we had a couple of weeks ago?”
Sara frowned. “But that was just a teeny tiny one, hardly noticeable.”
“But maybe just enough to open the fissure, leaving the rest of the cave intact.”
“How far back do you think it goes?” Sara asked.
“I don’t know,” Eve replied, holding up her battery operated torch to help dispel the gloom. “I’d heard this area is riddled with caves, I’ve just never seen any. And I certainly never heard any rumors about cave paintings.”
Sara turned and began to trace lightly over the primitive drawings. “I wonder how old they are.”
“I can’t even begin to imagine,” Eve said, coming closer to the wall again. She frowned. “Maybe not as old as we think.”
“What do you mean?” Sara asked.
“Well, look at this pigment. It’s hardly faded at all.”
Sara frowned and looked closer. “I don’t know much about the preservation of art,” she admitted. “But wouldn’t the fact it’s been seal up help preserve it?”
“Maybe.”
In a mood as changeable as the weather, Eve grinned again. “But even if it’s a fake, it’s an amazing one. And maybe it’s not millions of years old, but it’s a good bet it’ll still be at least hundreds. We’ll still be famous.”
Eve’s good humor was infectious and Sara couldn’t help but laugh. “C’mon, let’s keep exploring. Maybe there’s more paintings, or even artifacts.”
The two women made their way cautiously along the wall to the back of the cave. It grew smaller the further they went, but it was still roomy.
The walls were rough and the floor was hard packed earth.
“Shouldn’t there be stalactites or stalagmites or something?” Sara asked.
“Not necessarily,” Eve said. “I’m pretty sure you only them in cave where there’s water. This seems pretty dry to me.”
Suddenly, the ground shifted and there was a rumbling noise. Sara and Eve looked at each other in shock.
“Run!” Eve shouted.
They raced back to the fissure, arriving in time to see rocks slam down to fill it completely.
As the two women stood frozen in place, the rumbling stopped and the cloud of dust the falling rocks created began to settle.
“We’re screwed, aren’t we?” Sara asked quietly.
Eve hesitated. “Probably,” she admitted.
“Well, you know what they say about curiosity. Curiosity killed the cat. Looks like we’re a couple of cats who didn’t have sense enough to stay out of strange fissures.”
“Sara…” Eve reached out to touch her arm.
“Don’t!” Sara said, jerking her arm away. “Don’t try and comfort me.”
“Don’t be like that,” Eve said, unable to wholly give up hope. “We just barely scratched the surface of how far back this cavern goes. For all we know, another fissure might have opened up. We need to keep exploring.”
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